Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control

MB DOUGHERTY PASCAL-EMMANUEL GOBRY

Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control Login With Facebook | Login With Twitter | Login | Register Politix Home Tech/Media SAI Tools Media Enterprise In The Biggest Blown Opportunity Ever, AOL Instant Messenger Has Utterly Collapsed In The Biggest Blown Opportunity Ever, AOL Instant Messenger Has Utterly Collapsed Your BlackBerry Will Be Obsolete In A Few Months Sarah Palin Had An Awesome Day At Work Today IBM Is Picking A New Fight With Oracle Finance Clusterstock Markets Your Money Broker Center How To Use Game Theory To Get A Great Deal On A Car How To Use Game Theory To Get A Great Deal On A Car STOCKS FALL AFTER FED MINUTES: Here's What You Need To Know The Top Tax Traps Divorced Couples Are Walking Right Into The Top Tax Traps Divorced Couples Are Walking Right Into Politics Politics Defense Obama Goes Nuclear On Republicans Obama Goes Nuclear On Republicans Girls In Australia Are About To 'Go Wild' As The First US Marines Arrive Down Under Strategy Strategy Careers There's A Ridiculous Reason Why In-Store Retail Apps Don't Work There's A Ridiculous Reason Why In-Store Retail Apps Don't Work It's True: The Most Successful People Fail The Most Entertainment MEET AUBREY PLAZA: The 'Parks & Rec' Star About To Take Over The Big Screen Advertising These Dazzling Etch-A-Sketch Portraits Take 150 Hours To Make Sports Here Are The 'New' Nike Uniforms For All 32 NFL Teams Life The Life Transportation PHOTOS: What The World's Busiest Cities Would Look Like Without People PHOTOS: What The World's Busiest Cities Would Look Like Without People Take A Day Trip In An Amazing $279,000 Flying Car More Latest Europe Video The Tape The Hive Data Your News BI Intelligence Events About BI Events BI Intelligence Politics Home Horse Race State & Muni Governance Threats Big Picture Hive Tape PR Contributors Documents Jobs Follow us on Facebook and get updates from Politics posted directly to your news feed Continue to Business Insider » You will be redirected in seconds. Enter you email address and zip code to set up customized email alerts. Email Zip From To Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Time To Admit It: The Church Has Always Been Right On Birth Control Michael Brendan Dougherty and Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry | Feb. 8, 2012, 4:39 PM | 149,359 | 397 Share on Tumblr A A A Facebook Linkedin Twitter Tweet Google+ Email Sergio Dionisio/Getty Painting the Catholic Church as "out of touch" is like shooting fish in a barrel, what with the funny hats and gilded churches. And nothing makes it easier than the Church's stance against contraception. Many people, (including our editor ) are wondering why the Catholic Church doesn't just ditch this requirement. They note that most Catholics ignore it, and that most everyone else finds it divisive, or "out-dated." C'mon! It's the 21st century, they say! Don't they SEE that it's STUPID, they scream. Here's the thing, though: the Catholic Church is the world's biggest and oldest organization. It has buried all of the greatest empires known to man, from the Romans to the Soviets. It has establishments literally all over the world, touching every area of human endeavor. It's given us some of the world's greatest thinkers, from Saint Augustine on down to René Girard. When it does things, it usually has a good reason. Everyone has a right to disagree, but it's not that they're a bunch of crazy old white dudes who are stuck in the Middle Ages. So, what's going on? The Church teaches that love, marriage, sex, and procreation are all things that belong together. That's it. But it's pretty important. And though the Church has been teaching this for 2,000 years , it's probably never been as salient as today. Today's injunctions against birth control were re-affirmed in a 1968 document by Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae . He warned of four results if the widespread use of contraceptives was accepted: General lowering of moral standards A rise in infidelity, and illegitimacy The reduction of women to objects used to satisfy men. Government coercion in reproductive matters. Does that sound familiar? Because it sure sounds like what's been happening for the past 40 years. As George Akerloff wrote in Slate over a decade ago, By making the birth of the child the physical choice of the mother, the sexual revolution has made marriage and child support a social choice of the father. Instead of two parents being responsible for the children they conceive, an expectation that was held up by social norms and by the law, we now take it for granted that neither parent is necessarily responsible for their children. Men are now considered to be fulfilling their duties merely by paying court-ordered child-support. That's a pretty dramatic lowering of standards for "fatherhood." People.com Today's moral lodestar How else are w.......